Monday, June 28, 2010

How Hot is it?I promise not to turn this into a weather blog, but I just wanted to mention that is is in fact hot enough that the official explanation for a fire on a deck is that the hanging plant spontaneously combusted. So, if you thought spontaneous combustion was the stuff of uban legends, well, now you know better. And for a list of things from Wikipedia that are known to spontaneously combust, go here. Now you have another reason to avoid manure piles. You're welcome.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

To Essay or NotI took a lot of history in college, partly because I enjoyed it and partly because I had worked out a good system. History courses at the time there all had a three week essay cycle - in that every three weeks you had to turn in an essay and then you would get the assignment for the next one. (IT also meant my history major roommate who was taking three history classes had an essay due every week). The reality was that the history courses were well designed to give you an idea what the exam would be like (unlike say, the second year psychology course where the first essays you wrote were on the exam). My medieval history professor actually had very good recall of the library books, such that he would look at my bibliography first and then based on that know what source information I had (which was both cool - he certainly didn't expect me to know what I hadn't read, and a little scary, he knew just what I had read). I had a classmate who, in a different history course copied a friends' essay and turned that in. Since this was the early nineties and not all students had computers (although we did all have access to the computer lab, which, let me tell you was often quiet and relatively empty), she actually hand copied it. There were a number of potential issues I could see - which I did point out to her: What if the professor recognized it? If you could guarantee that the professor would not, what guarantee would you have that it would get the same grade? Wouldn't it suck more to get a crap grade with someone else's words? Wouldn't writing your own paper be only marginally slower and hopefully less boring than copying someone else's words? (In the end, while I don't know what happened with that particular paper, she was a no show for our history seminar (missed all four weeks) and since the seminar had twelve people and the aforementioned meticulous professor, and she also failed to turn in the seminar assignments, she got no credit for the course as a whole.) So, now that one can actually cut and paste a paper, or order one online and type their name across the top, it is not terribly surprising to me that their is a rise in internet enabled plagiarism and also a rise in catching plagiarism. What I found interesting about this article was the suggestion that rather than straight essays, a multi-media package on a topic was suggested as a better way to capture. I confess I was at one point able to diagram the Battle of Stirling Bridge (which featured an actual bride, Hollywood) so I can only imagine what I might have put together on that. (particularly since the overlap in my history course was such that I believe I covered that battle three times.)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Courteous DiscourseOne of my favorite moments in Pride and Prejudice is when Lady Catherine visits Elizabeth in an attempt to get her to call off her rumored engagement to Mr. Darcy. The discussion is witty (if weighted to one side) and yet fairly polite and adhering to some of the social mores of the day. And really, isn't it much more interesting to watch (or read) a discussion where the points are made with intelligence and courtesy. So, with thanks to ChaliceChick for the link, I present an exchange of letters between the US Embassy in Britain and the British Embassy in DC with regard to the World Cup.

(And yes, normally we would go with my rant about the use of England where people mean Britain, but for the purposes of soccer, there are in fact separate English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland teams. Sadly, only the English team advanced this year. And by the way, recognizing that the US's history with soccer is bumpy, but still, can we get a team for Hawai'i and Texas since they used to be sovereign countries? Okay, according to Wikipedia - there is a Puerto Rico team.)

Friday, June 04, 2010

Life Isn't FairSince I read ALOTT5MA and since they are big Spelling Bee followers (and I think I first heard of them in reference to their Bee coverage), well, this time of year I learn a lot about the bee. An interesting decision occurred today when the semi-final round, which has seen a lot of spellers spell out, was cut short in concern that there would not be enough remaining contestants to create an interesting prime time. Now, I realize that TV has rules, and that's part of participating in something televised. The spellers who had not yet had their turn will go first and then the remaining spellers will be considered official finalists. And, sure, in some ways it's a little like a rain delay and these things happens, but I can imagine that if I had spelled out in the early portion of the semi's I'd be pretty ticked that the others got extra study time. In eighth grade (which is actually the upper end of these guys) we had snow on exam day. The carpool that I was in had a sneaky habit of skipping my sister and I when they were running behind and I ended up having to scramble and get my dad to drive me, so I arrived about thirty minutes into the exam. In anticipation the school had stated that teachers would allow extra time for students who hadn't been able to get there due to snow (or carpool snafus). I did indeed get the additional thirty minutes, however, I hadn't planned my time well and still hadn't finished some of the questions. That was, of course my fault. However, the teacher had let everyone stay an extra thirty minutes, not just me. And at thirty minutes exactly we were instructed that if we didn't stop writing right then, we would not be graded, so myself and the other stragglers turned out exams in. Well, I got a crap grade on the exam. And no, it hadn't been a strong subject of mine, and yes, I should have raised the time inequity sooner, but I had hoped that the parts I had filled out were magically perfect enough that it wouldn't matter. The school talked to the teacher who told them that she had allowed everyone all the time they needed. I found a student who specifically recalled her telling us to hand ours in, but in the end, after discussion with my mom, decided that since I had her for the rest of the year, being right was probably going to hurt me more than it helped me. And I passed the course in the end and moved on to ninth grade and mostly managed to avoid that teacher. But I still remember how unfair it seemed, so I hope that these spellers are able to remember the fun of this trip to DC and not linger too much on the strange way the semifinal turned out.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Who Knew?Who knew the hospitals and/or government employees were just as suspect as the Ellis Island folks often blamed for adjusting people's names on entry. I had a co-worker whose name was spelled unusually, such that it appeared that her name should be pronounced differently. When I asked (to make sure that we hadn't just been saying her name wrong) her answer was that her mom had spelling issues. Well, this list indicates athletes with names that seem spelled wrong when spelled correctly. Apparently, quite a few of them are a result of some admin type person typing it wrong into the birth certificate. I can certainly understand choosing not to engage in the layers of bureaucracy required to change it back, although in some of these cases, I may have tried. I salute these folks ongoing challenge in getting their name right on the Starbucks cups. (Some day I'll share what I've gotten on mine.)

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Aha!So, here's the thing. I think coffee smells interesting. I think it tastes awful. So after a few tries, I have moved on. There are many beverages in this world, I don't have to like them all. And tea is awesome, and so I am happy. And when I feel a need for a kick, well, sometimes I scarf a soda. Although, I had noticed that soda didn't really perk me up. I have drank soda on days where I wasn't tired and didn't end up super revved up so I suspected it was more that I felt I had taken steps to counter the tired that made me feel better, if not more awake. I also have never been kept up by consumption of tea or soda, so never had to worry about at what time I consumed them. I did once take a prescription medicine that made my heart race and my hands shake - I was quite a mess at work and the doctor's office told me to stop immediately but it still took hours for it to wear off, so I imagine it is just as well for me since I seem to have no real effect and then ohmygodI'malljittery with no in between. But still, coffee. There are rituals and things that I still sometimes feel left out of. And even though I know the caffeine they add to soda is derived from coffee I did still sometimes wonder if I could make myself like coffee if I would discover that magical in between. So, I was a little pleased to discover that coffee actually doesn't make you more alert. Or caffeine really. (I also discovered that they have now found caffeine makes asthma worse, rather than better as had been thought.) Word seems to still be out on positive effects for Alzheimers. So I guess I'll have to stick to drinking what I like, and in moderation of course.